Method of manufacturing cigarette-tubes with hollow mouthpieces



M. C. GRAHL. METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CLGARETTE TUBES WITH HOLLOW MOUTHPIECES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 16,1915.

Patented Dec. 6, 1921.

STATliIfi i an MAX GLEMEN$ GRAHL, 0F DRESDEN-L6BTAU, GERMANY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. it, JLHQL Application filed July 16, 1915. Serial No. 40,274.

(GRANTED UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1921, 41 STAT. L, 1313.)

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that 1, MAX CLEMENS GRAHL, a subject of the German Emperor, and residing at 22 Altlobtau, Dresden-Lobtau, Germany, have invented certain new and useful improvements inha Method of Manufacturing Gigarette-Tubes with Hollow Mouthpieces, of which the following is a statement.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing cigarette tubes with hollow mouthpieces.

As everyone knows, cigarettes with hollow mouthpieces consist of three parts, namely the tube made of the finest tissue paper, the mouthpiece lining and the tobacco filling. In the accompanying drawing a cigarette of this kind is shown in Figures 1 and 2 in longitudinal section and in elevation, respectively. In these figures a is the tube made of the finest tissue paper. This tube is made of a piece of the said paper out to the required shape, wound into a tube and gummed together at the meeting edges, so that such cigarette tubes have a gummed seam b. The hollow mouthpiece is stiffened by the socalled mouthpiece coil. This coil is made of a piece of paper 0 out to suitable shape (preferably a somewhat stiff quality of paper is used), as shown in elevation in Fig. 3. This piece of paper is wound in the following manner to a coil, reference being had to the three cross-sectional views in Fig. at. The paper 0 is inserted with the pointed end 0 into a tube, which for this purpose is provided with a slot cl, until the point 0 of the paper is seized by a slotted winding mandrel which is rotatably disposed concentrically in the tube. When, thereupon, the mandrel e is revolved, it will carry the paper with it and. wind it up in the manner shown in the drawing, whereby the individual windings lie very close against each other. As soon as the last end of the paper has been drawn into the tube, the coil which until then was wound tightly onto the mandrel will suddenly expand, as the friction of the paper against the edge of the slot in the tube has ceased, and the coil will tend to fill the whole space available within the tube. The thus expanded coil is then pushed out from the tube into the mouthpiece end of the cigarette cover.

I11 pushing the coil into the cigarette cover or tube it is important that the outermost edge 0 (see Fig. 3) of the mouthpiece paper registers with the gummed seam b in the cigarette tube. This is indispensable for the neat appearance of the cigarette. Cigarettes, in which the gummed seam does not register with the edge 0 of the mouthpiece paper, are waste.

While the mouthpiece paper is being drawn into the winding tube it is frequently unavoidable that it is wound obliquely, notwithstanding the fact that the paper is care fully guided in a raceway. The oblique outer edge a? will then not register with the gummed seam. Above all the difficulty is encountered that when the paper is drawn into the winding tube, the previously tight coil will suddenly loosen out. Tt is obvious that the edge a of the mouthpiece paper 0 will not always reach the same point of the tube. The edge will be at one time closer to, at another time farther away from the slot d, according to the tightness to which the paper had been wound by the mandrel, and also according to the greater or lesser elasticity of the paper which may vary with the degree of moisture of the atmosphere. Furthermore it is possible for the edge 0 to change its position in the tube, as soon as the winding mandrel has been drawn out from the coil or the coil has been drawn from the mandrel. The coil will then completely expand and may thereby afiect the outermost winding although it bears against the wall of the tube.

With the methods hitherto employed in making the mouthpiece spirals and transferring them into the cigarette tube it is therefore not possible to secure with certainty that the outermost edge of the mouthpiece paper always assumes the same position. It is therefore unavoidable that often this edge will not register with the gummed seam of the cigarette tube.

The object of the present invention, now, is to insure that, by all means, the outer edge of the mouthpiece coil registers with the gummed seam. This is obtained by the coil, after it has been wound on the mandrel, being released therefrom and is only then severed from the strip of mouthpiece paper, whereupon the coil is pushed in the usual manner into a spoon carrying the cigarette tube and is stripped therefrom together with the paper tube. By such means, when, namely, the winding mandrel is withdrawn before the paper strip is severed, the coil will expand in the tube while it is still connected to the stock strip. Thus only the end of the continuous stock strip is wound to a coil instead of an independent piece of paper. After the coil has been completed, the mouthpiece paper may be safely severed. There is no more danger for the severed edge to shift its position, even if, by a suitable shape of the slot in the winding tube the last piece of the outermost mouthpiece coil is made to adhere when pushed into the paper tube of the cigarette. The fact that the expansion of the coil is completed before the paper is severed has the result that the windings of the coil remain in their position, thus also the last winding with the edge 0 Preferably the winding tube is made in such a manner that the one edge of its slot may serve as the lower blade of the severing device, in order to avoid a piece of the coil projecting from the slot after the severing operation.

For further explaining the operation according to the methods forming the subject matter of the present invention, Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 illustrate a winding apparatus adapted for carrying out the present invention at various stages of the operation in two side elevations and two top views, partly in section.

The mouthpiece strip f is wound on a reel 0, It passes through a raceway it into a tube z',' entering the latter through a slot in the same. 'Within this tube 'thewinding mandrel a which is slotted at its front end seizes the front end of the mouthpiece strip 7. Thereafter the forward end of the mouthpiece strip is wound to a coil within the tube 2'. After such winding of the coil has been completed the winding mandrel n is withdrawn from the spiral (see Fig. 8). Thereupon the finished coil is severed from the strip by mean of the knives 76 (see Fig. 7 Now the coil is pushed by aid of the tubular pusher Z into the spoon m, on which is fitted in known manner the paper tube which ineloses the tobacco and forms the cigarette. During this operation the coil traverses a distance which by a suitable formation of the slot in the tube 2' is employed to make the last end 0 (Fig. 7) of the outermost coil winding bear against the coil.

The mandrel is revolved to wind the coil, and is then removed from the coil by the ordinary and wellknown means which in themselves are no part of this invention.

It is obvious that the raceway 72. has mainly the object of holding the free end of the mouthpiece strip but not to secure an accurate guidance. On the contrary, the raceway must allow of a sideplay of the strip, so that the winding mandrel may work in a proper manner.

In the form shown in Fig. 9 the stopping of the feed during the cutting may be avoided. The tube 11 is flattod at the side toward the arriving front end of the mouthpiece strip and the lower edge of the slot in the tube is made as lower knife which together with the upper knife is effects the severing of the finished spiral from the mouthpiece strip.

I claim:

1. A method of making and inserting coils of paper for cigarette tubes, said cigarette tubes having seams, which consists in winding the end of a continuous strip of paper into a coil, the forward end of said strip of paper being gripped during the said winding, releasing the said forward end of said strip of paper after the said winding has been completed, whereby the said coil is free to expand, and then severing the rear end of said coil from said strip of paper, and then introducing said coil of paper into said cigarette, the outer edge of the said coil being caused to register with the seam of the said'cigarette.

2. A method of making and inserting coils of paper for cigarette tubes, said cigarette tubes having seams, which consists in holding the forward and rear ends of the strips of paper used for making said coils during the winding of said coils, releasing the forward end of said strip of paper, after the winding has been completed, whereby the coil is free to expand, and then releasing the rear end of said strip of paper, and introducing the said coil into the said cigarette, so that the rear ends of said coils are caused to register with the said seams.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

MAX CLEMENS GRAT IL. lVitnesses:

ERNST KATZ, Lossn LEWIN. 

